Századok – 2012

KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Kecskés D. Gusztáv: Pénzgyűjtés és propaganda. Az ENSZ intézmények információs tevékenysége az 1956-os magyar menekültválság megoldása érdekében I/109

AZ ENSZ ÉS A MAGYAR MENEKÜLTEK (1956-1957) 145 Mindazonáltal a pénzgyűjtési erőfeszítések nemzetközi jogi felhatalmazással (az ENSZ Közgyűlés határozatai) bíró koordinációja, a humanitárius szükségletek és tevékenységek szakszerű és megbízható dokumentálása, valamint a pénzgyűjtési felhívások támogatására professzionálisan megszervezett és lebonyolított médiakampány révén az ENSZ intézményrendszere jelentősen hozzájárult a nyugati kormányzati akarat kiformálódásához és sikeres megvalósulásához. COLLECTING MONEY AND PROPAGANDA The Informational Activity of the UN Institutions in order to Solve the Crisis Caused by the 1956 Hungarian Refugees by Gusztáv D. Kecskés (Abstract) The great wave of Hungarian migration which followed the suppression of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 by the Soviets, and the international rescue movement organised for its reception, is an outstanding chapter in the history of migrations in Hungary and the world alike. The provision of the some 200 thousand people, a considerable number even from an all-European point of view, their transport to the host countries, and their integration there, was a conspicuous success of the international organisation of migrant assistance service, in which the institutions of the UN family played a decisive role. The present study, which makes pail of a research project aiming at discovering the entire international background of the assistance offered to the post-1956 Hungarian emigrees, examines the role that the UN played in providing the financial means on which this miraculous series of events was based. According to the author's conclusions, through the coordination of money-raising efforts, sanctioned by international law (that is, the decisions of the UN general assembly), the professional and trustworthy documentation of humanitarian needs and activities, as well as the equally professionally organised and coordinated media campaign in order to support the money-raising propaganda, the institutional network of the UN contributed considerably to the formation of a unity of opinion on the part of the Western governments and to its practical implementation. The present study is based on documents from the archives of the UN itself (New York, Geneva), the Dag Hammarskjöld Collection of the Swedish National Library (Stockholm), the archives of the High Commissionary of Refugee Assistance, the International Committee of the Red Cross, (Geneva) and the NATO (Brussels), and from those of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Paris, Nantes).